The influence of social support and active coping on depression among African Americans and Latinos with disabilities.

Abstract

Maria Cecilia ZeaFaye Z. BelgraveTiffany G. TownsendS. Lisbeth JaramaSonia R. BanksGeorge Washington UniversityABSTRACT. Examined relationships among depression, active coping, and socialsupport in a sample of 109 African American and 57 Latinos with disabilities.Measures included Beck and Beck (1972) short version of the Depression Inventory,Brandt and Weinert's (1981,1987) Personal Resources Questionnaire (PRQ), an d thecondensed version of Tyler's (1978) Behavioral Attributes of Psychosocial Compe-tence Scale (Zea, Reisen, & Tyler, 1996). Findings indicated that active coping,satisfaction with social support, and type of disability were significant predictors ofdepression for African Americans, whereas active coping, perception of severity ofdisability, and social support were significant predictors of depression for Latinos.These findings underscore the importance of testing separate models for AfricanAmericans and Latinos.Fourteen percent of working-age African Americans and 8% of Latinos havedisabilities which impact functioning in activities of daily living (Bowe, 1990).Educational and employment opportunities are often reduced with an accompanyingreduction in the standard of living for these individuals. For example, only 16% ofAfrican Americans, 13% of Latina women, and 31 % of Latino men with disabilitiesare employed (Bowe, 1985a, 1985b). Inadequate and poor standards of living maygenerate feelings of stress, which feed into an increase in physical and psychologicalsymptoms that further impede an integration into the work force.REHABILITATION PSYCHOLOGY Vol. 41, No. 3, 1996